Warm up with Colombian comfort food
Ajiaco santafereño is a traditional Colombian soup that warms you from the inside out
Happy Wednesday, amigos…I hope you are having a good week so far. Today I want to hand over this space to a colleague and friend of mine, Claudio Foschi, our head chef at our Mexican restaurant Oyamel in Washington, DC. He’s originally from Colombia, and because it’s winter and we need all the soup recipes we can get, he’s giving us his recipe for ajiaco.
Ajiaco is also made in Peru and Cuba, but it’s most popular from Colombia's capital city, Bogotá. No one really knows exactly when it became popular, but its name, ajiaco, might be derived from aji, which, in the native Caribbean language of Taíno, means “pepper.”
Claudio’s version, ajiaco santafereño, IS from Bogotá (santafereño translates to “from Santa Fe, which is the historic name for Bogotá). He says “it's one of the top 5 iconic dishes from the country, and it's one of my favorite dishes that my mom used to make for me back home. It's very comforting and good for any kind of weather. I love making this dish for my family and to pass that tradition to my daughters.” People, that’s the kind of soup I love to make. Something that has meaning behind it, and passes on a special tradition, just like Claudio’s version.
Every culture has their own comfort soup—it fills you up and makes you warm, it uses ingredients you might already have, and it’s fun to make—building the soup ingredient by ingredient until your kitchen smells amazing. Do you have a favorite soup, or a recipe that has been popular in your family?
Ajiaco Santafereño
Makes 6 servings